Monday, 14 July 2014

Riot - from Jem & the Holograms

EVERYTHING with my sewing and pattern-drafting went wrong today. So I'm not going to talk about it. Bah.

But I do have a new doll. Mixed feelings over that fact as you will read below.

I did a few searches on Flickr for "Jem Riot" and some really nice pics of this boy came up. No disrespect to Integrity Toys - I love their dolls, but compared to the masterpiece that is Mattel's blond Harley Ken - there’s something a bit off about their Fashion royalty homme dolls.

Managing to find him for a reasonable price on Ebay, I ordered him, and he arrived today. Has anyone else ever bought a doll and opening it up only to feel utterly disappointed? This is only the second time this has happened to me, so I guess I'm lucky with the amount of dolls I seem to have collected.

He has that slight weirdness that most IT boys have, his face looked kinda squished flat and he reminds me of an old ex boyfriend. Haha! Not good really.

To be honest, I almost put him straight back in his box to re-sell him, or just shove him under the bed and forget him, but I did some more research online, and found some great restyles and repaints. I am very partial to my 12" boys, so I though what do I have to lose.

Here's how is is straight out of the box. I should have photographed him really, but this online pic just about sums up the trashy looking hair. Terrible. TERRIBLE. Hair. I mean, I know these Jem doll are meant to be outrageous, and I'm a child of the punk era, but for a doll of that price, the hair could be so much better. It's frizzy, impossible to get comb through; badly shaped, and my least favourite shade of blond ever. It's the kind of colour blond that cheap Barbie imitations have.

... I realise I'm ranting. Ahem.

It's easy to straighten hair with hot water, and trim down a bit shorter. It also seems possible to slightly change the shape of his head by dunking it in hot water and pressing it, then running cold water over him to fix the shape.

Sooo I had a go at that, and surprisingly, it seems to have worked. Very subtly, but just enough to make him look less like my ex.

He looks better with straight hair, a trim, and a slight reshape of the head. I can actually like him now:

I’ve also removed a few hair plugs, ones that hung badly at the front. I'll remove a few more, then I'll add some strands of darker blond or even light brown saran to try and mask the trashy blond. Finally, I'll give his face-up an enhancement.

But already he's a fine boy, and at least my little gang will no longer beat him up....

With darker hair, he'll need slightly darker brows... and that pink lip gloss really has to go. Then we'll find him a new name.

2 comments
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Oh dear... not much you can say about that hair - it so didn't suit him all bouffant and poufy!! What a difference straight hair makes so much better .... but he does need to ditch the pink lip gloss!!! Looking forward to seeing how he turns out!!

I would have minded much less if he had some kind of freaky mohawk. I prefer my rock punk rather than glam, lolz. I’ve already started adding colour to his hair, and he's looking better. more pics to follow, once I've got this current pattern finished.